Today is Thursday, February 20, the 51st day of 2014. There are 314 days left in the year.
1811 ― Austria declares bankruptcy
1816 ― Rossini’s opera “The Barber of Seville” premieres in Rome
1869 ― Tennessee Governor W. C. Brownlow declares martial law in Ku Klux Klan crisis
1872 ― Hydraulic electric elevator patented by Cyrus Baldwin
1938 ― U.K. Foreign Secretary Eden resigns, says P.M. Chamberlain appeased Germany
1953 ― U.S. Court of Appeals rules that organized baseball is a sport and not a business, affirming the 25-year-old Supreme Court ruling
1985 ― After defending his WBC flyweight championship, Sot Chitalada’s check for $104,000 is stolen by a ringside pickpocket
1989 ― Total eclipse of the Moon
1994 ― Pope John Paul II demands juristic discrimination of homosexuals
1998 ― U.S. movie box office hits quickest $1 billion for year (51 days)